This application relates to a vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft designed to carry a pilot and just a small number (e.g., less than ten) of passengers. Such an aircraft may be denominated a “PERSONAL AIRCRAFT”.
The present invention further relates to a VTOL Personal Aircraft of the conventional type; that is, an aircraft having a central, longitudinally extending fuselage; an aircraft tail, including a rudder and elevator arranged at the rear end of the fuselage, for controlling the aircraft; and at least one wing arranged on each side of the fuselage for providing lift, due to the different speeds of the airstreams flowing over the upper surface and the lower surface, respectively, of the wing.
The present invention is also specifically related to a VTOL Personal Aircraft of the conventional type, described above, which includes some means for increasing the speed of the airstream flowing over the upper surface of each wing. Such an increase in the speed of the airstream results in increased lift due to the well-known Bernoulli's Principle.
Various means and devices have been developed in the art for increasing the speed of the air that flows over the upper surface of an aircraft wing. Once such device is disclosed in the U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/229,157, referred to above. Another such means and device was developed by Willard R. Custer over a period of many years, culminating in an FAA-certified aircraft known as the “CCW-5 Custer Channel Wing Aircraft”. Elements of the design of the Custer Channel Wing Aircraft are disclosed in the following U.S. patents, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference:
U.S. Pat. No. 2,437,684
U.S. Pat. No. 2,510,959
U.S. Pat. No. 2,532,482
U.S. Pat. No. 2,611,555
U.S. Pat. No. 2,691,494
U.S. Pat. No. 3,123,321
U.S. Pat. No. 3,705,700
Aircraft of the aforementioned type operate well as short take-off and landing (STOL) aircraft. However, such aircraft have difficulty hovering and operating in a VTOL mode unless facing into a relatively strong wind and/or operated at a high angle of attack into the wind. This is clearly unsatisfactory for an aircraft which is intended to make frequent vertical take-offs and landings.